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Minion
}} The Minion (ミニヨン) is a series of Japanese folding cameras taking 4×5cm pictures on 127 film, made by Tōkyō Kōgaku (the maker of the Topcon cameras) between 1938 and 1943 and again after the war. The main designer of the Minion was Otagi Michifusa. Fujishima, p.89 of no.4. The company later used the name Minion again for 35mm cameras; see Minion 35. General description The Minion models are horizontal folders, with straight diagonal struts and a folding optical finder. None has a body release. The 127 film paper backing is not marked for the unusual 4×5cm format, and all the Minion variants have an exposure counter, manual or automatic. (Ten exposures can be taken per roll.) Film is loaded through the top plate, opened by a button on the right of the top plate. It is thus possible to load a roll of film with the camera standing in its case. At least for some models, Tōkyō Kōgaku supplied a card to make this operation easier, with loading instructions printed on one face and a depth-of-field table on the other. See this page of Nekosan's website for a reproduction of this card. The front leather is faintly embossed Minion on some examples but not all (no pattern has been identified). The Minion I and II Common features The Minion I and II have a Toko 6cm f/3.5 triplet lens made by Tōkyō Kōgaku and a Licht shutter made by Seikōsha, giving T, B, 25, 50, 100 speeds and equipped with a self-timer. The shutter plate is marked LICHT at the top and SEIKOSHA at the bottom. The back has a single red window, protected by a vertically sliding cover, to set the first exposure, and an exposure table written in Japanese and attached by four screws. Modern sources do not agree on the distinguishing features of models I and II, and the original documents observed so far do not clearly describe them. It seems that the modifications were introduced gradually rather than all at once, and this makes the evolution of the camera quite difficult to follow. The main change that occurred during the production is the adoption of auto-stop film advance, which seems to have been simultaneous with the introduction of a chrome finish version. Manual film advance The first manual variant was released in Spring 1938. It was featured in the new products column of the June 1938 issue of and was advertised in the same magazine from April of the same year. , p.341. There is no automatic stop advance. A small housing at the left end of the top plate contains a manual exposure counter, visible through a hole in the top. The first exposure is set via the red window and the film is advanced by manually turning the knob until the next number is displayed. This advance system is obviously not very reliable. The front part of the viewfinder is engraved Minion and folds above the rear part. In the April 1938 advertisement, the camera is touted as having a new feeling, a new size (presumably negative size) and new lens (新しい感じ 新しいサイズ 新しいレンズ). April 1938, p.A38. The advertiser is named as Tōkyō Kōgaku Kikai. In May and June, Hattori Tokei-ten Shashinki-bu is named as the distributor, a price of is specified, and the lens is described as fast (明るい) rather than new, the light weight of 320g is touted, as is the ability to change films while the camera is still in its ever-ready case. May 1938, p.A40, and June 1938, p.A38. The advertisements in the May and June issues are identical; the single illustration within all three of these advertisements is identical. A single surviving example is known so far, pictured in Antonetto and Russo and in Fujishima. Antonetto and Russo, p.24; the same picture is in Fujishima, p.89 of no.4. Its focal length is engraved 6,0cm instead of 6cm as found on all the later cameras. The second manual variant has a newer viewfinder: the rear part folds above the front part and it is spring loaded with a release button situated on the right. This variant may have been introduced in 1939: the Minion was featured again in the new products column of the May 1939 issue of and was advertised in the same magazine from April 1939 after a ten-month interruption. , p.341, does not distinguish between the two first variants, calling both of them "Minion". This variant is pictured in the advertisement in September 1939, Advertisement reproduced in , p.96. where the Minion is offered for , in black finish only. The finder is described as "Newton type", and a circular depression is visible in the rear folding part. A surviving example is pictured in this page at Cam's. Its back exposure table is black and its red window cover has no marking. Another example is pictured in as a "Minion II". , item 1178. Automatic film advance The auto-stop feature was probably added at the end of 1939: a variant equipped with this feature appeared in the new products column of the November 1939 issue of and was advertised in the same magazine from October 1939. , p.341, calls the camera "Minion II". The first auto-stop variant has the exposure counter disc on top of the small housing on the left of the top plate and a small button at the rear to unlock the film advance. No other modification is visible: the finder is still of the Newton type, has the same circular depression to the rear and still has its release button to the right. An example is pictured as a "black Minion I" in this page of the Topcon Club website. The second auto-stop variant has a thicker focusing ring sporting bigger numbers; it seems that the folding struts were slightly reinforced at about the same time. An example in chrome finish is pictured in this page at Asacame. This variant is pictured in chrome finish in the November 1939 advertisement in . Advertisement reproduced in , p.96. The camera was available in black finish for and in chrome finish for . Another advertisement dated December 1939 shows an older picture of the first auto-stop variant in black finish, and gives the same list of features and prices. Advertisement on p.1 of , December 15, 1939, reproduced on p.35 of Hyaku-gō goto jūkai no kiroku. Both advertisements simply say Chrome Minion and Black Minion, not "Minion II". The third auto-stop variant has the finder's release button moved to the front. The finder at first remained the Newton type, with a circular depression in the rear folding part instead of the square frame of the later Galilean finder. This model has a white exposure table and the Tōkyō Kōgaku logo on the red window cover; these features of the back probably applies to the previous auto-stop variants as well, but no description or picture has yet been found to confirm or refute this. An example is pictured as a "black Minion II" in this page of the Topcon Club website, and another is pictured as a "Minion I" in . , item 1177. This variant is also pictured in the instruction manual reproduced in Nekosan's website. The fourth auto-stop variant has a Galilean viewfinder, only recognizable by the square frame in the rear folding part, holding an additional optical element. This is the most common one and is pictured in , in Antonetto and Russo and in various websites linked below. , p.924, Antonetto and Russo, p.25. The Minion is listed in the official price list compiled in October 1940 and published in January 1941, in four versions called "Black Minion I", "Black Minion II", "Chrome Minion I" and "Chrome Minion II" with no further detail. , type 2, section 7. The price was set at ¥92 for all four versions. A similar price list dated November 1941 mentions the "Black Minion II", "Chrome Minion II" and Chrome Minion III" (see below). , type 2, section 7; type 3, section 7B. The Minion appears in the April 1943 government inquiry on camera production. It is mentioned as made by Tōkyō Kōgaku and distributed by Hattori. , items 175–7. Three versions are listed: the "Black Minion II" and "Chrome Minion II", with the Toko 60/3.5 three-element lens by Tōkyō Kōgaku and the Licht shutter by Seikōsha, , items 175 and 177, lens item K6, shutter item 12-V-4. and the "Chrome Minion III" described below. In the wartime period, advertisements are reported until mid-1943. , p.341. An advertisement dated February 1944 shows a drawing of the third or fourth auto-stop variant, and still mentions the finder as "Newton type", perhaps by mistake. Advertisement on the second cover of , February 15, 1944, reproduced on p.64 of Hyaku-gō goto jūkai no kiroku. Two versions are listed: the "Black Minion II", for , and the "Chrome Minion II", for , both with the Toko lens and Licht shutter. It is said that some examples of the Minion II were assembled in 1945 from old stocks of parts. Antonetto and Russo, p.25. The price of the Minion II was set on 17 June 1946 by the Japanese Ministry of Finance, to ¥1,100. See full reference in the page on Japanese prices. The same information is found in Lewis, p.60. One very late example is known with a modified back, forming the fifth auto-stop variant: the exposure table is absent, and the cover for the red window is rotated 90° and slides to the left. Example observed in an online auction, with lens no.52673. This feature might be typical of the postwar period, when an exposure table written in Japanese was not attractive for potential US buyers. The Minion III The Minion III differs by the back, lens and shutter type. The lens is a four-element Simlar 6cm f/3.5 by Tōkyō Kōgaku and the shutter is a Seikosha-Rapid giving T, B, 1–500 speeds. The aperture scale is at the bottom of the shutter housing. The speed rim is engraved SEIKOSHA-RAPID and the shutter plate is marked TOKYO OPT. CO. at the top on the examples observed. The only back picture observed so far shows the newer back with no exposure table and a rotated red window cover. Most modern sources say that the Minion III was released after World War II, The release date is given as 1946 in Antonetto and Russo, p.26, in , item 1355 (where the camera is wrongly called "Minion II"), and in this page of the Topcon Club website, whereas it is given as 1945 in this other page of the Topcon Club website. The Minion III shown in Omoide no supuringu-kamera-ten, p.28, is misidentified as a "Minion II (Chrome)" and dated 1939. but a "Chrome Minion III" was already mentioned in the November 1941 official price list cited above, , type 3, section 7. and the camera was described in the April 1943 inquiry, with the Simlar and Seikosha-Rapid. , item 176, lens item K2, shutter item 18-R-8. The wartime examples certainly do not have the TOKYO OPT. CO. marking because the company would not have spelt its name in English at the time, and it is not known if they have the modified back or not. No example of a wartime Minion III has been observed so far, and it is not certain that the model was actually sold during that period. After the war, it seems that the Minion III was commercially available from about 1946, and its price was set to ¥1,800 on 17 June 1946. See full reference in the page on Japanese prices. It simply appears as the "Minion" in an article on Japanese cameras in the December 1949 issue of . December 1949, pp.36–7. This late document possibly lists discontinued models as well; it gives the price category as "¥5,000 to ¥10,000" (this was after a period of high inflation in Japan). Two actual examples have been observed with no flash synchronization; another is known with a PC synch socket at the top of the shutter casing, but this is certainly not original. No synchronization: example pictured in , item 1355, lens no.210032, and example pictured in this page of Nekosan's website, lens no.210915. PC synch connector: example pictured in Antonetto and Russo, p.26 and in Omoide no supuringu-kamera-ten, p.28, lens no.210971. All the lens numbers known so far are in the 210xxx range. This includes the camera pictured in December 1949, p.36, with lens no.210469. Notes Bibliography Original documents * . Advertisements in April 1938, p.A38; May 1938, p.A40; June 1938, p.A38. * . "Atarashii kikai to zairyō" (新しい機械と材料, New equipment and machinery), June 1938, pp.914–5. (The Minion appears on p.914.) * Type 2, section 7; type 3, section 7B. * Items 175–7. * Type 2, section 7. * Advertisements on p.35, corresponding to p.1 of the December 15, 1939 issue, and on p.64, corresponding to the second cover of the February 15, 1944 issue. * December 1949. "Ōru kokusan kamera" (オール国産カメラ, All of Japanese cameras). Pp.34–41. Recent sources * Pp.23–7. * Items 267–8. * Fujishima Kōichi (藤島広一). "Meiki no sekkeisha" (名機の設計者, Designers of famous cameras). Pp.86–90. * Pp.55 and 60. * P.924. * Omoide no supuringu-kamera-ten (思い出のスプリングカメラ展, Exhibition of beloved self-erecting cameras). Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 1992. (Exhibition catalogue, no ISBN number.) P.28. * Items 1177–8 and 1355. Links In English: * Minion at Nekosan's website, with the following sub-pages: ** Black Minion ** Chrome Minion ** Postwar Minion ** Instruction manual ** Depth-of-field table In Japanese: * Related pages at the Topcon Club website: ** Various Topcon cameras, including the Minion ** Minion II vs Minion 35 ** Topcon chronology * Related pages at Asacame: ** Minion page, both 1935 and 1949 dates are mistakes ** A-Z 127 film cameras, with the Minion in this page * Minion at Cam's * Minion's use at the 44 Club * Minion in the Zeppan Tōsan photo site (incorporating this photograph). If the link does not work, go to the Zeppan Tōsan photo site, follow the link marked "武器庫" in the page menu, and then the link marked "東京光学　ミニヨンＩＩ" in the "next" menu Category: Japanese 4x5 viewfinder folding Category: 1935 Category: Topcon Category: M